Labor
Labor policy and administration
Lawyer has hopes Veng Sreng clients will be freed
A lawyer representing three of the 23 people arrested during garment strike clashes on January 2 and 3 hopes the capital’s court will drop charges against her clients when it hears their case on April 18, she said yesterday. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lawyer-has-hopes-veng-sreng-clients-will-be-freed
Brands ‘failing their workers’
European mega-brands are not doing enough to ensure that the Cambodian workers who make their products receive a basic living wage, according to a report released today. Tailored Wages, an analysis of 50 of Europe’s biggest clothing brands, found that many major high-street chains are doing ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brands-%E2%80%98failing-their-workers%E2%80%99
Gov’t pins $275,000 in protest damage on CNRP
A government committee charged with assessing damage from the garment worker protests in December and January has put the value of the destruction at over $250,000. It places blame squarely on the opposition CNRP and a trio of union leaders. That committee’s report, released Thursday, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-pins-275000-in-protest-damage-on-cnrp-55123/
Unions to lead holiday strike
When is a strike not a strike? That’s a question being asked after union leaders yesterday announced they will inform garment factory owners that their members want to use annual leave days to wage their stay-at-home strike the week after Khmer New Year. The leaders of eight ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-lead-holiday-strike
Labor ministry to inspect migrant worker recruitment agencies
The government today will begin strict inspections of agencies that recruit workers to send overseas, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Tuesday. The labor minister has previously threatened to suspend or revoke the licenses of agencies that do not comply with labor laws. Speaking at a workshop ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-ministry-to-inspect-migrant-worker-recruitment-agencies-54925/
Sugar plantation under investigation for using child labor
Police and human rights workers are investigating claims that a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation in Preah Vihear province has been employing child workers since December. Oeu Bunthany said the Y Heng Company fired her on Saturday after she complained to local police that up to 20 children ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-plantation-under-investigation-for-using-child-labor-54866/
Wing Star workers to end strike
Employees at the Kampong Speu shoe factory where a ceiling collapse killed two workers last May are headed back to work today after more than a week on strike, but will take their demands to the Arbitration Council. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wing-star-workers-end-strike
As Wing Star Shoes strike enters third day, workers block road
Thousands of workers at the Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. on Wednesday blocked the road to the factory in Kompong Speu province for two hours. They demanded the company raise their bonuses by $5 and properly enforce labor laws after arbitration talks failed Tuesday. It was ...
Infighting at garment union
Two founding members of Cambodia’s largest independent garment worker union say they were forced out of their jobs for investigating corruption. Members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), media outlets and several labour rights organisations received a letter dated March 14 and ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/infighting-garment-union
Court probe of Veng Sreng Street slaughter ends
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has finished an investigation into the shooting deaths of five protesting garment factory workers, and the wounding of more than 40 others, during a military police operation against stone-throwing strikers on January 3, Judge Phou Povsun said Sunday. “We had finished ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-probe-of-veng-sreng-street-slaughter-ends-54303/
Campaign focused on reducing deaths
Amid a continually rising rate of industrial accidents and deaths, the Ministry of Labour introduced a campaign focused on identifying workplace hazards before tragedy strikes. Since the ministry began keeping track of 960 Cambodian factories in 2009, workplace accidents have risen by nearly 375 per cent, ...
Sen David and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/campaign-focused-reducing-deaths
Second death confirmed on Kompong Speu sugar plantation
A 44-year-old woman was run over and killed by a harvesting machine on Sunday while working on a sugarcane plantation in Kompong Speu province owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat, marking at least the second death on the plantation since December. Y Mom, originally from ...
Kuch Naren and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/second-death-confirmed-on-kompong-speu-sugar-plantation-54417/
Wing Star strike to continue after meeting fails
Thousands of workers at the Wing Star Shoes factory demonstrated Tuesday for the second day in a row outside the factory in Kompong Speu province after a meeting between union and company officials failed to reach an agreement that would end an ongoing strike, worker ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/wing-star-strike-to-continue-after-meeting-fails-54461/
Wing Star workers walk out
Provincial Ministry of Labour officials will today meet with union representatives and management at the factory where a ceiling collapse killed two workers last May, in an attempt to resolve a strike. About 5,000 employees at Wing Star Shoes, an Asics supplier, walked off the job ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wing-star-workers-walk-out
Workers demand bonus increase, labor laws
About 7,000 workers protested in front of the Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. factory in Kompong Speu province on Monday, demanding that the company raise their bonuses by $5 and properly enforce a number of labor laws, a union official said. The strike comes ten months ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-demand-bonus-increase-labor-laws-54431/
Factory flaws go live
Unionists and labour rights officials are applauding a website scheduled to go live today that will hold to account garment factories that flout Cambodia’s labour law. The site, created and maintained by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, will publicly name factories ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-flaws-go-live
Union representatives file complaint against leaders over pilfering
Two union organizers have filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court claiming that the senior leaders of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) have embezzled money that was meant to be paid to workers in compensation following a dispute with ...
EU concerned, but no threats to cut Cambodia aid, trade
The European Union has called on Cambodia to release 21 jailed activists and protesters and told the government during high level talks held here this week that a failure to reform the judiciary and electoral process could have severe consequences for the ruling party by ...
Simon Marks
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-concerned-but-no-threats-to-cut-cambodia-aid-trade-54254/
Guidelines finalized for child workers in fisheries sector
The government on Friday finalized guidelines aimed at reducing the number of children who work in the fisheries sector and do not attend school, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the NGO World Vision said in a statement. World Vision said the guidelines, which it ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/guidelines-finalized-for-child-workers-in-fisheries-sector-54260/
On 1st day, garment strike gains little traction
Two unions that called for a stay-at-home strike by garment factory employees Wednesday had little success in mobilizing workers after six other unions, under pressure from the government and factory owners, pulled out of the planned industrial action on Tuesday. Union leaders who pushed ahead with ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/on-1st-day-garment-strike-gains-little-traction-54038/
Minority of unions still strike
A small number of workers from four union groups took part in a stay-at-home-strike yesterday, union leaders said, after mass industrial action was postponed the day before. Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said members of his union from a “small amount” of factories had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minority-unions-still-strike
Riot police ready for action, protests on standby
About 100 Daun Penh district riot police on Wednesday held exercises in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park in preparation for possible industrial action in a week that garment workers’ unions had called for a mass stay-at-home strike. Unions had downscaled plans of street protests to a mass ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/riot-police-ready-for-action-protests-on-standby-54051/
Government’s Trade Union Law may limit freedom of association
A draft trade union law that the government has pledged to introduce by the end of the year includes provisions that will allow for unions to be suspended if their activities are deemed illegal, the head of Cambodia’s largest employers association said Wednesday. Van Sou Ieng, ...
Hul Reaksmey and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/governments-trade-union-law-may-limit-freedom-of-association-54042/
Workers’ strike delayed, rescheduled for post-Khmer New Year
Labor unions and associations have suspended their strike plan scheduled for March 12 following the request by garment workers, according to a union leader. The suspension came after the meeting between the union leaders from a coalition of 18 labor unions and associations today. The unionists ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NmU5MTVjY2ExZTQ